FANS PRAISED FOR BRITISH LEGION DONATION

30 January 2013

Dave Toyn

Stevenage fans have been praised after the club presented the Royal British Legion with a cheque for hundreds of pounds following a number of recent fundraising events.

Representatives from the Stevenage branch of the Royal British Legion along with Mayor of Stevenage, Councillor John Lloyd CC, who has the legion as one of the chosen beneficiaries of his charity fund, earlier this week received the cheque for £756.56 from the club’s Marketing Manager, Dave Toyn.

Over the past three months the club has held a number of fundraising auctions, including two pre-match events which saw fans bidding for special signed poppy player shirts in the Broadhall Suite, an eBay auction of club captain Mark Roberts’ shirt and another shirt auction at one of our popular Sportsman’s Dinners.

Funds raised were then split equally between the Royal British Legion and the club’s community trip to Kenya later this year, which will see a 21-strong team travel to Nakuru in May to help cook, teach, build facilities and help with football coaching.

Marketing Manager Dave Toyn (pictured above top left) comments, “As a club we feel it is very important to support good causes within our local area and we are very pleased to present this cheque to the Stevenage branch of the Royal British Legion. Not only did Boro fans show great enthusiasm by taking part in the popular player shirt auctions but a further £200 raised through a bucket collection on Armed Forces Day went straight to the charity, providing them with even more vital funds. I’d therefore like to thank each and every fan who took part.”

Natasha Robertson, Royal British Legion Community Fundraiser, said: “I would like to say a huge thank you to Stevenage Football Club and its supporters during our Poppy Appeal. The Legion’s national fundraising target this year is a record-breaking £42 million, so this is going to be the biggest Poppy Appeal ever. The money raised by Stevenage Football Club will go towards providing vital support for the Armed Forces and their families.

“The Legion has flexible and wide ranging support to help every generation of the Armed Forces community, and it estimates almost 9.5 million people in the UK are eligible for its help. Each week, the Legion spends more than £1.7 million on helping members of the Armed Forces Family – serving, ex-Service and their dependants, answering more than 165,000 calls for help each year.”